At Sea Soars Over Nextdoorer

By Will Connor

Tuesday night Honolulu was treated to a performance by one of her local bands, At Sea who took the stage at Nextdoor downtown, or should I say they floated over the stage just long enough for the audience to get a glimpse of them between the lofty sounds and spacey visuals.

It is rare that an instrumental band can headline a show. At Sea proved beyond a doubt that it can be done, and they did it with ease. They held the crowd at their beck and call from the first sweet note straight through to the last noisy attack. Phasing between swelling intensity and ambient string pads exhibited At Sea’s commitment to rehearsal and the on-stage communication that comes with the intimate knowledge acquired in the practice room.

At Sea’s well thought out balance of bowed strings versus plucked strings and percussion would have done the trick alone, but the addition of low lighting, quality ambient films projected behind the band, and the audience’s willingness to be whisked away to outer space made for a perfect mix.

The opening acts held a degree of entertainment, but nothing compared to At Sea. Temporary Lovers would have been better if their lead singer had about one third less between-song mic time or if one of the other band members had shown some level of interaction with the crowd. CLT+ALT+DELETE was much better, but then had some technical problems, like tuning and some feedback that wasn’t their fault. They were interesting, still. Their guitar player was more accomplished than the band let on and their drumless techno post-punk 80’s pop style was refreshing. I would go see them again.

Overall, the night was good up to At Sea’s first note—and then it took a turn for the great. I can’t recommend them enough and Ka Lamakua will definitely try to do more to make sure you know about their activities in the future. You an hear them and keep up to date by visiting their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/atseanoise

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